P. 31. The double phare, whose welcome sight, &c.
The light-house at Alexandria, placed on a small island at the mouth of the Nile, was called Pharos, and was so distinguished, that it gave its name to any other light-house.
L. 15. The eyes are loves familiers, &c.
Here we have an allusion to planetary influences and magnetic attractions, the mysterious and occult doctrines of the Rosycrusians and Astrologers. See an entertaining story of the correspondence of two absent friends in the Spectator, No. 241.
Whose misery delights.—Thomson, Spring, v. 1071.
P. 35. Before the tulipps of two lipps.
In the modern jest books it is recorded, that a lady asking a gentleman which he liked best, tulips or roses, he answered, Your ladyship's two lips before all the roses in the world.
The concluding lines, and many others in these poems, are uncommonly smooth and melodious for the time they were written.
No seas of ice can cool desire,
Equal flames must quench Love's fire.—Carew.
P. 37. Because 'tis gilt with shining epithets.
"It is remarkable," cried Mr Burchell, "that both the poets you mention (Ovid and Gay) have equally contributed to introduce a false taste into their respective countries, by loading all their lines with epithets. Men of little genius found them most easily imitated in their defects; and English poetry, like that in the latter empire of Rome, is nothing, at present, but a combination of luxuriant images, without plot or connection; a string of epithets that improve the sound without carrying on the sense."—Vicar of Wak. Chap. 8.
